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Kokushibo didn't feel love, whether it be from himself or others. He once did, centuries ago, when his brother still looked at Kokushibo as if he hung up the moon and stars just for him. Back when the idea of a wife and children didn't sound like a distraction from greater things. A waste of time it all was eventually, where did all that love Yoriichi held for others get him in the end? The same place as every other human, dead.
(But, if Kokushibo was honest with himself, honest to the point where he no longer held the name Kokushibo and was back to Michikatsu, then he'd admit that he also did love his brother.)
Love was a waste of time, effort, and energy. Familial, romantic, platonic, such frivolities were another reason why demons stood above humans, they didn't need such things, the power one held by themselves would ultimately be the difference between life and death for a demon.
Kokushibo didn't feel love. Nobody was brave enough to get close to Kokushibo aside from the other upper moons, and even they understood when to keep their distance… most of the time. Everybody knew to stay far away lest they be cut in half, and Kokushibo was just fine with that, after all, he didn't need to waste his time on such things. Perhaps that was what made Morro so different from everybody else.
Morro hadn't looked at Kokushibo with that same dread and fear everybody else did, in fact, he hadn't even recognised him. He'd fallen from who knows where in the infinity castle into Kokushibo’s infinite base, it was reasonable to assume he was a low levelled demon foolish enough to assume it could defeat the upper moon 1. However it hadn't turned out that way, the peculiar man (more boy than man) who had stared at him after Kokushibo's cuts did nothing but go through him, whose outfit had rips and was faded after seemingly years of use, definitely can't be a demon, most certainly not a low level and Kokushibo would have certainly heard of him by now if he was higher level. The fight between the two hadn't lasted as long as Kokushibo was expecting it to, his sword did nothing to the man and Morro simply wasn't skilled enough against Kokushibo to take him down. In the end they'd both backed down (as much as it hurt both of their prides).
The most interesting thing about the man, however, was his power. At first glance he'd assumed it was some loose form of wind breathing, but a closer look proved that initial thought wrong. Morro didn't use the wind as a tool, but more as the element itself. Kokushibo's curiosity was piqued, and he'd insisted that he needed to know how Morro did it.
Time felt like a blur after that, so much talking, another foolish upper moon meeting, one of those lower fools mentioning something going on outside of the infinity castle, and of course Kokushibo had to be the one to handle it. Morro had clung with one hand to Kokushibo as they'd been teleported out, the first time anybody had touched Kokushibo in a not negative way. Of course Kokushibo tried to cut his arm off afterwards, though not successful (he didn't want to think about how much it reminded him of Yoriichi).
Morro had a distinct way of distracting Kokushibo from his mission, always finding something of interest, always asking questions about something, he was like a child in many ways, when Kokushibo had mentioned this, Morro had seemed angry for only a second before his features smoothed over as he seemed to realise something (not that he'd told Kokushibo what that was).
The latest distraction Morro had found was in a village next to a very abnormally wide river, Kokushibo let himself be impressed for almost a second before remembering that it was just a river. Morro seemed to avoid the rushing water like the plague, interestingly enough. Instead, he'd gone about the village, attempting to pull off the act of bring a normal person, Kokushibo had stuck to staring at the river, far enough from the village not to cause a stir, but close enough so that he could hear if there was a commotion, Morro could handle himself but it was simply quicker for them both if Kokushibo did it. Everytime Morro insisted on going into a town or village (not the city, they both agreed that the city wasn't a place that they needed to go) it ended with him getting into trouble, not from anything he did, unless you counted existing as causing a commotion. Some harlot would be scared by his tattered clothing and unnaturally pale skin (almost translucent and green in the dark and under the moonlight), assume him a demon, and Morro would come running back to Kokushibo, which always led to more screams. In the end, Kokushibo would always end up with kyokokukamusari bloody and a path full of dead humans, he didn't understand initially why Morro refused to fight back, did he not want to hurt people?
The first time it had happened, Kokushibo had insisted Morro handle them himself, stating that he wasn't the man's personal babysitter. However, Morro had just shook his head, “I can't. I've already hurt too many people, I'm supposed to be trying to get better, killing people is going to be the opposite of that.” And that had been the end of the conversation.
Kokushibo hadn't felt love since the day he left his wife and child to become a demon slayer, but he never found himself caring about killing people when Morro always came running back to him after being found out (so much like how Yoriichi would run towards him).
The river was loud, very loud, but not loud enough to hide the shouts that could be heard from the village. Once again Kokushibo would have to kill for Morro, next time he wouldn't let him get distracted, at this rate-
“There's demon slayers! Everybody move back, we’re saved!”
-at this rate demon slayers were going to come after them….
Morro came running out of the village, hid black hood over his head and pulled up to his mouth, almost reminiscent of a ninja.
“Hey, these guys seem more trouble than usual, they do that breathing thing you also do.”
Kokushibo could have laughed, as if any of them held a candle to his power, he'd kill them just like he'd killed so many beforehand. The river roared behind him as he pulled kyokokukamusari out of its sheath, the sun shining on it. Morro glanced at the river behind them, “Let's just go, these weird uniform guys aren't worth the-”
Just as Morro spoke, four demon slayers ran out from behind a building, Morro jumped but didn't move behind Kokushibo, likely the river scaring him more than the demon slayers. Low ranked ones, too. They all grinded to a halt as they saw Kokushibos features, his six eyes narrowing as he got his sword into the perfect position.
“Oh shit- this guy is the- I'm out!”
One of them yelled, but was stopped by another, “You aren't leaving us alone against that thing!” the fool spoke.
No matter, they'd die all the same, just one cut, that's all it will take. Kokushibo couldn't help but feel hyper aware of Morro's breaths next to him, not stressed, more used to conflict than a normal person would be, but that makes sense as Morro wasn't normal.
The demon slayers all hesitated for a moment, and that one moment was enough for Kokushibo to cut them all in half. He sheathed kyokokukamusari, the fight over before they were even aware it had begun. Morro sighed and walked forward, he stared at one of the corpses for a moment, before walking onwards, away from the river.
Instead of the usual paths Kokushibo took, he'd instead decided to move to using the main ones after Morro had gotten confused one too many times about if Kokushibo was sure he knew where he was going without needing landmarks (he wishes he could cut Morro's tongue out, maybe that would get him to stop talking).
The thing is, Morro himself didn't seem to like distractions when it was something he was interested in, he was instead insistent that they should get stuff done as quickly as possible, a mindset Kokushibo approved of greatly, but unfortunately that mindset didn't seem to include the very important (probably given to him so that he'd leave the infinity castle and get outside for a bit) mission that he'd been tasked with. Morro insisted they take their time and due to that, by the time they finally got to where Kokushibo actually needed to get to, he had to go and look for the poor soul who angered Muzan enough to get a personal hit put on them.
Morro had, thankfully, decided to be patient for once, walking alongside Kokushibo and trying on different accessories in the stalls they walked past (all the owners having run off the second the two entered the street). He was so close to getting this mission done with, and then they can go back into the infinity castle (when had Kokushibo decided he'd bring Morro back with him? How had he not realised it sooner? It seemed like such an obvious decision). If all goes well, this person won't put up any struggle, not that it would change his fate if they did.
Morro’s patience didn't seem to last, though, and he soon enough phased through a wall, leaving Kokushibo alone on his walk to the target. Which he was glad for, he needed time to think about what he was going to do once this was over, would Morro, a person who wasn't a demon, even belong in the infinity castle? Muzan hadn't seemed to care at all when he'd spoken to Kokushibo, and the other upper moons seemed intrigued by Morro, especially Akaza. It would switch up the hierarchy, which is the main problem. If Morro stayed then that would mean he belongs high up, but where exactly? Kokushibo would figure it out on the way back, for now there were other things to think about.
As Kokushibo walked towards the house of the target, a yell echoed throughout the place, and not a yell of surprise, a yell of pain. Morro. Something hurt Morro. Kokushibo stepped back and unsheathed kyokokukamusari. How did something hurt Morro? How was somebody more skilled than Kokushibo that they were able to hurt him?
Morro ran through a wall and towards Kokushibo, a panicked expression coating his face. He seemed to be clutching his arm, but no blood was spotted, how had he been hurt?
Morro rushed behind Kokushibo, like a child hiding from a demon. The man was holding his arm tightly against his chest, his teeth clenched and eyes furrowed in pain. The scent of blood wasn't in the air, however. In fact, the entire time Kokushibo had known Morro, not once had the man bled, when he was tangible he could be hit by objects and touched, but nothing left a wound on him, any attacks done on him just went through him when he was intangible or briefly shifted like fog before reforming when he was tangible. Kokushibo was brought back to a thought he'd had many times, what is Morro? He wasn't human, humans couldn't move like Morro does, and they couldn't be unharmed by any attacks done on them, but, he also couldn't be a demon so what else did that leave? Maybe Douma was right, perhaps it really is just a weird blood demon art.
Cutting Kokushibo out of his thoughts, a man came running around the corner, wearing the demon slayer uniform. A low ranked one. Surely this can't be what Morro was running from, none of the lower ranked members had ever even managed to grab Morro, nevermind hurt him. What did this low ranked demon slayer have that nobody else did?
The slayer stopped as he noticed Kokushibo, his hands, which were held tightly onto a katana, started to shake slightly. Kokushibo took a step forward, and in the blink of an eye took out kyokokukamusari, however before he could cut him in half, the slayer used a water breathing technique, or attempted to at least. It was choppy and unrefined, too pathetic to even scratch at Kokushibo's skin, it wasn't even precise, splashing past Kokushibo and hitting-
Morro, who dodged the water and used a gust of wind to throw the slayer off his feet and onto his back, unintentionally stopping Kokushibo from cutting him in half at that moment.
Water.
Of course it was water he was weak to.
In just a fraction of a moment, everything clicked together for Kokushibo.
However that now meant one thing; Morro has a weakness.
Kokushibo shook his head clear and returned his focus back to the slayer, who was grabbing for his katana which had been knocked out of his grasp.
In less than a second the man was dead.
Morro stared at Kokushibo, a familiar look in his eyes (Yoriichi once looked at him the same way, grateful and relieved to see him, how could a person nothing like Yoriichi continue to remind Kokushibo of him?), he let go of his arm, which didn't seem as if it had ever been injured.
“You're weak to water.” Kokushibo said bluntly. Morro's expression shifted to a more guarded one.
“Gonna finally kill me?”
Kokushibo stared blankly at Morro for a moment, and then walked on. He didn't wait for Morro to follow, whatever Morro did now was up to him. Kokushibo could think of a hundred ways to kill Morro now, water is everywhere after all, but, and for a reason he wasn't sure why, he didn't want to. It would be for the better if Kokushibo got rid of the man, he'd finally be left alone, and he wouldn't have to worry about the future hierarchy issues that were bound to come…
But…
(You do care, don't you?)
Even in death Yoriichi's voice managed to taunt him.
Morro ran up behind Kokushibo. He didn't say a word, instead vying to patiently wait for Kokushibo to say something first. Which he didn't. There was a reason he was in this town in the first place, after all. He has a job to do.
Morro stood next to Kokushibo as he stared at the setting moon, the rising sun behind him as he wiped the blood off his face.
“Thank you.” Morro cut the silence.
Kokushibo looked at him with one of his eyes, expression as bland as always. Finally, he was getting some sort of acknowledgement for helping Morro so many times, and for being patient as he acted like a child being let loose into the world for the first time.
“I'll try to be better next time.”
That… wasn't what Kokushibo had been expecting. ‘Next time’? Did Morro mean that…
A weight pressed against Kokushibo's side. He clenched the end of kyokokukamusari tightly, the urge growing to cut through Morro and show him his place.
“You're not as bad as I expected.”
…Kokushibo let go, he rested his arm back at his side. Letting Morro close his eyes and rest, leaning against Kokushibo.
And, for a brief moment, Kokushibo also closed his eyes.
(The weight on his side felt just like Yoriichi.)